Sit in the Princess Alice Garden

A pleasant little garden beside St Bartholomew the Less within the walls of St Bartholomew's Hospital, the Princess Alice Garden is quieter than other green spaces in the area by virtue of the imposing hospital gate which must be walked through to get to it.


A sign noted that the garden was opened in 2001 to mark the 100th birthday of Princess Alice, who was a President and Patron of the Guild of the Royal Hospital of St Bartholomew.

For more, see http://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/princess-alice-garden

Learn about Brazil's Olympic future

It's only 1,453 days to go until the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and last night the baton was firmly passed to the South American city, with a memorable flourish. If you're keen to understand what Brazil and Rio have to offer without leaving London, then you're in luck as Somerset House hosts Casa Brazil until 8th September, with a showcase of Brazilian art and culture.


Your author popped into the Embankment Galleries yesterday and, apart from a big clock and a shop already selling Rio Olympic tat, was impressed by exhibitions on Brazilian art and design, and also on the Olympic plans for the city, where you can learn about the work that has already taken place to prepare for the Games.

For more, see http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/casa-brasil

Watch the Closing Ceremony

So, a few more loose ends to tie up today - another marathon not going through Tower Hamlets - before it's time to draw the curtain down on the show which some people call the greatest show on Earth. It's been just over two weeks of highs and lows and we've put on a fine event for athletes from around the world. London, you should be proud.


And tonight, in front of an audience which the organisers rather optimistically estimate to number in the multiple billions, we will once again attempt to put on a show of what makes us good, culminating with the extinguishing of a flame, and the handing of the Olympic dream to Brazil. It all leaves your author questioning what we will all do now, but until then, some music...

For more, see http://www.london2012.com/spectators/ceremonies/closing-ceremony/

Watch the Race Walk

The Olympics end tomorrow, so if you're out of tickets or didn't get any and you still want to get your fill of watching London 2012 events in the flesh, you might consider watching some of the Race Walk in Green Park.


Only around 50 percent of the race is in a ticketed area, meaning that ordinary plebs can line up along some of the route and see part of the races, but be quick if you want to see the the men’s 50km event, which starts at 9am, followed by the women’s 20km event at 5pm.

For more see this map or visit http://www.london2012.com/venue/racewalk/


_{^Picture © Derek John Lee used under a Creative Commons license^}

Visit the Mile End Floating Market

In an example of the sort of thing your author hoped would characterise the Olympic summer, some people out in East London have put together a floating market, with barges in Mile End offering their wares to passers by on the canal, or the towpath.


There's the usual East London art, clothes, cakes, sanwiches and books, but visitors also have the opportunity to access herbal medicine, a floating hairdressers and even a floating factory (of sorts) making fused glass jewellery onboard.

For more, see http://www.floatingmarket.co.uk/

Attend the Greenwich Summer Festival

Your author still isn't quite sure about the branded pens which have sprung up around town for enforced enjoyment of The Event, but one pleasant oasis with sport screens is the Greenwich Summer Festival, within the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College.


The inevitable big screen is not fenced in behind huge crowd fences, and serves up film screenings when the sport is over, in a venue that also offers music, cabaret & theatre and real ale. It's a bit like the amazing offerings that usually happen in London when The Event is not on, and perhaps that's why it is so appealing.

For more, see http://www.greenwichsummerfestival.co.uk/

Find Chen Guanming's rickshaw

He made headlines a week or two ago for his cycling trip from Beijing to London for the Olympics, but your author was surprised to stumble across his rickshaw when wandering through Chinatown last Friday, for Chen Guanming has Olympic fever and claims to have traveled more than 30,000 miles to be in London for the Olympics.


His story is an inspiring one, and journeying through 16 countries, and negotiating floods, war zones, mountains and intense cold in order to be at a sports tournament is an Olympian feat in itself.

For more, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18980693

Drink tea at Dr Johnson's House

There can be no better place to take tea than the home of Dr Samuel Johnson, a man who described himself as "a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has, for twenty years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and, with tea, welcomes the morning."
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Johnson was known to be a prolific tea-drinker so it seems fitting that his former home in Gough Square - now a museum to the great man very close to your author's heart - has started serving tea over light conversation at 3pm every Tuesday in July and August in Johnson's Parlour. It sounds very civilised.

For more, see http://www.drjohnsonshouse.org/events.html#tea

Visit the Olympic Park

Your author is acutely aware that tickets to get inside the Olympic Park are almost impossible to come by at this stage of the Games, but felt obliged to write an update on last Thursday's visit, which included a chance to see a victorious Iceland beat Sweden at Handball.


From the moment you get out of view of the hideous Westfield Centre, topped by an ugly Holiday Inn, the park is beautiful in places and oddly exposed in others. It's hard to know what to expect from a multi-billion pound investment, and perhaps this jumble of temporary venues isn't quite what your author would have spent the money on, but with the landmarks of Central London on the horizon, the beautiful flowers lining the riversides, the perfect queues and the vague disquiet amongst visitor that the only ale available was a can of John Smith's, it was hard not to feel full of patriotism.

For more detailed and useful information about the Park, visit the always-excellent http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/

Watch the Women's Marathon

As many readers will remember, it's not going to Tower Hamlets, and it's not starting on Blackheath, but the Olympic Marathon is taking to the streets of Westminster and the City today, where we are being allowed to look at it without paying.


That said, if your author's experiences trying to get across South West London last Sunday are anything to go by, getting around could be rather difficult, but it is a Sunday so we all have plenty of time.

For more, see http://www.london2012.com/athletics/event/women-marathon/coursemap/

See the Olympic Medals at the British Museum

If you've wondered what the Olympic medals actually look like, and thought that whilst you'd like to you'll never get to see one yourself, then help is at hand, as the British Museum has a few of them they'll let you look at.


We are told that the display will explain the story of the production of the medals for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, starting with metal mining by [metal mining company] through the designs by David Watkins and Lin Cheung and onto their production by the Royal Mint.

It's all on display in Room 37 until September, though judging by your author's experiences this week, this could be the quietest time to go. For more, see http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/london_2012_games_medals.aspx

_{^Picture © Nagarjun Kandukuru used under a Creative Commons license^}

See St Paul's Cathedral late & for free

This summer, the great Cathedral at St Paul's is opening late on various evenings, to give visitors the chance to wander around in the evening, and hear the sounds of the Great Organ, as well as experience British tapas and drinks in the crypt cafe.


The best news of all is that it is free entry, so you won't have to stump up the usual £15 which - whilst being worth it to maintain the fabric of this beautiful building which has such a fascinating history - always seems like an awful lot of money.

For more, see http://www.stpauls.co.uk/Olympics/Summer-Lates

Find Imre Kiralfy's Mausoleum

Though the venue for much of the 1908 Olympics, the White City Stadium, was demolished in 1985 in order to build the BBC White City buildings, the Mausoleum of its creator, Imre Kiralfy is still standing in Kensal Green Cemetery.


An Austro-Hungarian showman and former conjurer who was a protégé of P.T. Barnum, Kiralfy was an unlikely person to mastermind the creation of the great stadium and it is perhaps understandable that the stadium was only added as an afterthought to a Franco-British trade exhibition on the same site.

Upon his death, Kiralfy was interred in the Mausoleum, but in 1921 his wife had him removed and cremated, and another mausoleum built in New York, which was completed in 1924 and which became their final resting place. The cemetery is now open April - September, 9am - 6pm (10am - 6pm Sundays) and October - March, 9am - 5pm (10am - 5pm Sundays).

For more, see http://www.winningendeavours.org/67-142/imre-kiralfy-photo.html


_{^Picture © Jim Linwood used under a Creative Commons license^}

Tour the World in London

Your author is always bleating on about how there is in London all that life can afford, and the whole world is in London, but this week it is literally true. Whilst you wouldn't know it wandering around the City, in other parts of town the nations of the World are showing off their wares.


Inevitably many of the national hospitality houses, set up to entertain athletes and VIPs, are not open to us proles, but a few decent forward-looking countries are allowing us in, so step forward Jamaica's Jamaica House, Switzerland's House of Switzerland, Africa's Africa House and a few others for your forward-thinking and positive attitudes.

For more on all the national hospitality centres, many of which are sadly closed to ordinary bods like your author, see http://www.visitlondon.com/london2012/national-hospitality-houses-for-london-2012/

_{^Picture © ReeSaunders used under a Creative Commons license^}

Cycle in the Olympic Velodrome

As avid consumers of Olympic build-up hype will almost certainly be aware, one South London venue from the 1948 Olympic Games remains in active use. The Herne Hill Velodrome was originally built in the early 1890s, and chosen for improvements with the addition of a bitumen track the last time the event was held in London.


Tonight, as with every Tuesday from April until September, from 6pm until 8pm there is an open session of road bike training, offering an unstructured chance to ride where once Olympic athletes competed for medals on a medium banked track. The track reaches 30 degrees at its steepest point, providing an opportunity for road riders to practice in a traffic free environment, and we are told it's especially popular with triathletes and sportive riders.

For more, see http://www.hernehillvelodrome.com

_{^Picture © Paul Wilkinson used under a Creative Commons license^}